A True Heir to Gryffindor
by ToastyTamLin
Summary: Harry asks himself simple question - why did Gryffindor own a sword? This is the result.


When the spectators heard the fourth Champion announced, they expected to see a boy in wizard's robes emerge from the tent to face his dragon. Some of the more uncharitable onlookers, not all in Slytherin, expected a figure cowering in terror. A few, holding memories of childhood tales, hoped for a powerful mage to stride forth, wand in hand, flinging magic with wild abandon. They were all wrong.

When Harry Potter came forth, it was as mailed warrior, with sword and shield. Upon his body a hauberk of a myriad iron rings, gathered at the waist by leather belt, extending to his knees. Upon his head an iron helm, open at the face with nose and cheek guards. Upon his arms were leather vambraces. Upon his feet were sturdy leather boots, over legs bound with cloth. In his right hand he bore a sturdy blade, glittering in the sun. And in his left a round shield, a bright blood red with yolk yellow rays.

He paused a minute, gazing upon the looming form of the Horntail before him. Gathering himself, he walked forward.

* * *

What led to this scene was a single thought. In that period of second year between his defeat of the basilisk and the end of term, Harry pondered a simple question. Why did Godric Gryffindor possess a sword?

This question bugged him, and so he turned to the library. What he found had been both inspiring, and frustrating. From what he could tell, Gryffindor had been a warrior and fought in the many wars between muggles. And because those wars had been among mere muggles, the wizarding world's histories ignored them. There were vague references to journeys abroad with the Varangian Guard. There was enough to gather that he had been a great leader of men. But precious little more.

Still, Harry was intrigued. He wanted to know more. He wanted to know what the battles would have been like, where he had travelled, what armour he would have worn, what magic he might have used to rpotect himself. Even if the name of Gryffindor had been lost to the depths of time in the non-magical world, Harry felt that he might be able to find some of the answers.

So when he returned to Little Whinging, he sought out the library. And there he learned of great conflicts between Saxons and Danes. Of the great journeys east and south, and service to Byzantium. He learned also of what the wealthy veteran warriors might have worn, and how they fought. He was hooked.

And there it might have stayed, a passion for the history of a time long gone. But Harry had held that blade, hidden near a millenium before. It wasn't just a a pciture in a book, or an exhibit in a museum. It was more real than that, and he wanted more. So he reached a decision - he would recreate the costume Godric Gryffindor had likely worn to battle.

* * *

Finding himself living in Diagon Alley for the remainder of the summer, Harry set to work. Doing things the muggle way would probably take decades. But magic was capable of wonderous things. From the bookshop, Harry obtained texts on magical crafting. He read of how ore could be refined, how metal could be shaped and formed with twists and turns of a wand. He read of how magical beasts could be rendered for their parts, of how hides could be tanned to form leather. He read of the possibilities of enchantments, and the uses of runes.

Harry also explored the alley. On previous visits he had not seen much beyond a few stores. But there were more shops than just those required to purchase supplies for school. There were jewellery shops and enchanters, crystal-mongers and furniture stores. Probably the most useful for his purposes was Prestwick Procurement. They advertised the ability to buy pretty much anything from the non-magical world, and have it delivered within a week.

From his reading, he had become acutely aware of just how much more interesting and useful the knowledge of runes and arithmancy would be than divination. That was easily fixed with a letter to Professor McGonagall. He just hoped that Ron would forgive him. Unusually, he was well ahead with his homework, and had even got a bit of a head start on the coming year's work. Having a goal and a use for the magic he was learning made it much easier to study.

Finally, term began. In between trouble and turmoil, boggarts, dementors and sightings of mass murderers, he made a start on his project. Harry had decided that the Chamber of Secrets would be a good place to work. He was slightly embarrassed by his new passion, and also valued the peace and quiet. Once the basilisk had been processed, it was just a weekend's work to clean the chamber up a bit, and shore up the collapsing tunnels.

The first piece that Harry worked on was a pair of basilisk leather armguards. They were simple in design - a thick, stiff piece of leather wrapping the arm from wrist to elbow, with two buckled straps to keep them in place. It was a perfect starter project, and was not without setbacks. First of all the baslisk hide had to be cut to the correct thickness, and the tanning spells properly cast. While not overly complicated, the spells did need a bit of practice to get right. There was also the fact that they had been intended for use on the hide of cattle, and required a bit of tweaking for a giant reptile. Once the hide was sorted, the starps had to be sewn on. Harry initially tried this with a needle and thread, but soon gave up due to the toughness of the leather. In the end a series of very focused piercing spells provided holes in the leather, and a bit of magic had the thread writhing through to fix it all together.

The next project was a pair of boots. These consisted of a very thick piece of hide for the sole, and a slightly thinner upper. The tricky aspect here was that the best way to sew them together was inside out, after which they needed to be turned. This task was almost impossible to acheieve by hand, so Harry turned to magic for help. It was strange in a way that this type of transfiguration hadn't been taught yet, since it was in a way the most basic. They had learnt to turn wood to metal in their first lesson, but had yet to learn how to change the shape of something without changing its nature!

It was somewhat later in the year that Harry put to use what he had leant in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. It was nothing overly fancy - just a simple enchantment that when activated would render the leather rigid and impervious to any damage. But it turned the armguards from a protective layer to something that could truly be called armour.

The biggest project of the year was his suit of chainmail, and it required the most thought. It was well known that it was extremely difficult to get spells to 'stick' to iron. But this wasn't quite the whole story. An iron object couldn't be spelled except by the one who created it. And so he contacted Prestwick Procurement, and ordered a crate of iron ore. The spells to melt down the ore were simple to cast, albeit draining. Once the rubbish had been removed, he poured the molten iron into long sheets, and let them to cool. It was then that the hard and tedious work began. Each link in the chainmail was drawn from the iron sheet with a spell, and formed into a ring. Each ring was etched with runes, and threaded through four others.

It was slow work to start with, as he had to speak the incantation for the transfiguration for each and every ring, while concentrating on the form he wanted. But in the tediousness of the task he managed something quite incredible - he stopped requiring the incantation. It was a slow transition, from a full rendition of the words to a mumble. From a mumble to an utterance in his head. And finally, the lack of an incantation at all. Simply the imposition of his will and magic upon the world.

In all, there were over twelve thousand links in the finished piece, and it took him three months of work. Each and every link had the same pattern of runes, which he flooded with his magic. The runes created a weak protective sheild around the ring, perhaps enough to stop a stinging hex. But there was not just a single ring. The overlapping reinforcement created a shield that stopped anything that Harry was willing to throw at himself. The finished result was a short-sleeved hauberk stretching to his knees.

In the last two weeks of term, as distraction from revising for exams, he created his helmet. It was probably the piece that represented the greatest reduction in effort from the non-magical methods. Harry dreaded to think of the long hours of hammering, heating and cooling it would take to fashion such an item. With magic all it took was a good image of the shape he wanted. The result was a slightly conical helm. A straight, narrow piece of metal protruded down at the front to protect the nose. Two wide, curved, pieces formed cheek guards. The inside was padded with leather and sheepskin, and a leather strap would fix it to the head.

* * *

Eventually, term was over. There was the by now normal excitement at the end of the year, in which Harry's hopes of a home were both raised and crushed. While he couldn't perform magic at the Dursley's, he could make progress with his project. Years of having to patch clothes had left him fully capable of sewing cloth, and so he set about creating a linen tunic to wear beneath the chainmail. It was simple in design - long sleeved, knee length with a keyhole neck. Acromantula silk thread was used to embroider runes into the cloth. These were for cushioning charms to protect himself against the weight of the chainmail, and dirt protection. The latter would not entirely hold off the need to wash the garment, but it would guard against soiling by twelve thousand iron links! He also fashioned a pair of yellow woolen trousers, and two long, thin lengths of red wool cloth.

With the beginning of the new school year, Harry mostly ignored the fuss over the Triwizard Tournament. Instead, he was planning what would probably be the most difficult and complex piece of the ensemble - the shield. He obtained five planks of wand-quality linden wood. These were shaped to form a large circle, with a hole at the center. Three long, flat iron bars were created, with holes for rivets. These he used to join the linden planks together. The bar that was in the center was covered with a carefully carved piece of wood where it passed over the hole - this would provide a hand-grip. Over the hole was rivetted a sturdy iron boss. The whole of the front of the shield was cover in a single piece of basilisk leather, glued in place. The edge of the shield was covered in a thin rim of iron, bent over and nailed in place.

It was at this point in the construction that Harry's name was drawn from the Goblet of Fire. He mostly abandoned further work in favour of training his magic in anticipation of the task ahead. Unitl, that is, he learnt that he would be facing a dragon. Quite frankly, the thought terrified him. He felt he knew nowhere near enough magic. In the end it was Moody's advice to 'play to your strengths' that decided him. If he had been entered into the tournament to be killed, he would go out in style.

This led to some frantic work to complete the shield. It would be unbreakable. It would be fire-resistant. Although he didn't understand the theory, it would be unmovable by any other than him. Something to do with being 'locked to the planetary magical reference frame'. And in a way, it would act as a highly specialised wand. It could only cast shielding spells, but they would be incredibly powerful. It turned out that the main difficulty in creating wands was balancing them so that they could be used for anything.

A week before the first challenge, Harry went to visit the headmaster.

"Hello Sir. I was wondering if I could have Gryffindor's sword please? It served me well against the basilisk, and I would feel a lot happier about the first task with it by my side. I reckon I have as much claim to it as anyone else."

At this point the Sorting Hat spoke up.

"Quite right, quite right. I remember when Gryffindor left it with me. What were his words? Oh yes - 'If Merlin can determine an heir with a sword in a stone, I can bloody well do it with a sword in a hat. And don't let any bugger tell you otherwise!' He was a bit drunk at the time, but he was sincere. And you, yound man, are certainly worthy of his legacy."

The headmaster merely smiled and, with a twinkle in his eye, nodded towards the sword in its stand.

* * *

On the day of the first task, Harry grabbed an early breakfast, then headed down to the Chamber to prepare. He donned the tunic and trousers. Next he carefully wrapped the red leg-bindings around his feet and up to his knees. He pulled on the thick basilisk-hide boots. He slipped on the armguards, and buckled them into place. He tugged the heavy chainmail over his head, then gathered the waist with a belt, with sword in sheath. Next he slung the shield over his back by its long leather strap, and covered the entirety of his strange garb with a long cloak. The helmet went into a bag that he would carry, along with a couple of other items.

He attracted no attention as he made his way to the competitors tent. Nobody paid much mind to the long obscuring cloak as he selected his dragon, or as he sat patiently waiting his turn. Finally the attendant at the exit of the tent announced that his turn would be soon. He stood, removing the cloak, and unslung his shield. From his bag he removed the helmet and a small letter. He buckled the helmet into place, and checked that his wand was tucked into one of his armguards. He handed the letter to the gaping attendant, uttering only two words - "My Will". He paused, drew the sword, and finally strode through the doorway.

Before him sat a giant hulking beast of a dragon. A female Hungarian Horntail, willing to go to any lengths to protect her nest. He would meet this challenge like Gryffindor himself, daring those who wished his death to do their worst. He walked forward, shield held high and to the front. Eventually the dragon seemed to notice him, and rose to its feet. It took in a great breath, and then exhaled.

Harry noticed the great gout of dragonfire just in time, and willed into being a wide shield. The burst of fire rolled along it, battering at it, seeking any weakness. But it held, with only a few licks of flame curling around the edge. Harry pressed on. The dragon roared its displeasure.

Soon enough he was in striking range. The horntail suddenly flung its head forward, as if to bite the intruder in half. The great blow struck against the shield with a crash, and yet Harry was unmoved - his runework was sound. In flash him struck with the blade in his right hand, pricking the dragon's snout. It reared back in anger and pain, before suddenly spinning. Harry barely reacted in time, turning to bring the shield to intercept the tail coming in from right. As the dragon turned back, he dashed forward, and immediately had to counter two blows from the claws of creatures front legs. The one from the left was easily blocked, but the one from the right he failed to stop with his sword. But even as the claws skittered across his chainmail, so too did the blade of Gryffindor strike against the dragon's leg. Harry staggered back under the force of the blow, but was otherwise unhurt - the hauberk had held. But Gryffindor's blade had left a bloody gash.

The horntail reared up on it hind legs, screeching its displeasure, while Harry recovered from the staggering blow he had taken. Again the jaws came flashing towards him, and again they were blocked. Again the tail came swinging round, but this time he was too slow. One of the spikes smashed into his shoulder, buckling a few of the rings, while Harry went flying backwards. He struggled to stand, but had to bring the shield around while on one knee to shield against another burst of dragonfire. Wincing from the pain in his shoulder, he finished rising, and dashed again towards the dragon. The head came down a third time, but this time Harry was ready with both sword and shield. The sword pierced deep into the snout, before the dragon's head cam to a shuddering halt against the shield. Harry twisted to the side, wrenching the sword through the side of the head, expecting another attempted blow from the tail.

That blow never came - the dragon's injured leg buckled beneath it, interrupting the turn. Harry used the opportunity provided by the stumble to rush forward along the dragon's right side. He delivered an alighty blow to the rear of its front right leg, before stabbing at the rear foot. The dragon seemed almost sluggish now. In fact it almost looked how he felt after... ah - that was it! The blade must be covered in basilisk venom. With that thought he decided to retreat for a bit. As he careful walked backwards, the horntail made an attempt to douse him with flame. The attempt was aborted as the flame leaked from the gash in the side of its face, burning the flesh. The beast was staggering now, three of its legs collapsing beneath it. He moved in for the kill, aiming to put it from its misery. As he approached the head and neck reared up, and he seized the opportunity. With a great thrust his blade pierced through the dragon's throat, severing the spine. As quickly as he could manage he wrenched the blade free, ready for the horntail to retaliate. But nothing more came.

He walked towards the now unguarded nest, sheathing his sword. He picked up the golden egg, and walked off the field to a stunned silence. 


End file.
